Contractors’ organisation, IPSE, runs an ‘Accredited Accountant’ scheme to provide limited company owners with extra reassurance that member firms are fully qualified and trained to deal with the specific needs of contractors and freelancers.

The organisation was previously known as the Professional Contractors Group (PCG).
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HMRC has published its much-anticipated IR35 business test online today, together with a set of typical IR35 scenarios, in an attempt to help taxpayers assess their risk of being caught by IR35.
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A leaked letter from Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary of the Treasury, to Chancellor George Osborne has revealed that over 2,000 public sector workers are being remunerated via their own personal service companies.
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Once you’ve decided to become a contractor, there are a number of steps you will need to take before you can embark on a successful contracting career.
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If you thinking about becoming an IT contractor, you need to ensure that you are the type of person who will thrive outside the world of permanent employment. Here we look at the main differences between contract and permanent work.
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The interim management industry is growing fast – one leading organisation suggests that it has doubled in just the last five years. So what do interims do, and how much can you earn as a contract interim manager?
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If you are starting up as an IT contractor, you will find that hourly or daily rates are determined by a number of factors – principally your skills and experience, the industry sector, the location of the assignment, and the underlying economic conditions at the time.
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With HMRC’s much discussed IR35 business test due to be published shortly, early copies of the test are unlikely to impress professional contractors, or business organisations, as from first inspection, the vast majority of individuals would be at a high risk of being caught by IR35 if the current scoring methods are retained.
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SIC (Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities) codes are used by Companies House to group companies by the type of business activities they carry out. New company SIC codes took effect from 1st October 2011.
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Although many specialist accountants have offered some type of online service to their clients in the past, the arrival of cloud computing in the past few years has revolutionised the web, and the way both small businesses and their accountants communicate.
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BN66 is a term used to the refer to the Government’s implementation of s.58 of the Finance Act 2008, which has enabled HMRC to reclaim back taxes tax from users of offshore schemes (particularly trust arrangements), who would otherwise have been liable to UK taxation.
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In this brief article, we look at how professional fees, such as accountancy and legal expenses are treated for tax purposes.
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Until April 2013, all employers (even companies with a sole employee) were required to file an Employer Annual Return by 19th May following the end of the previous tax year, consisting of forms P14 and P35. The Real Time Information (RTI) changes, implemented on 6th April 2013, have changed the way payroll data is communicated with HMRC in future tax years.
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Doubts have been raised over the proposed IR35 business entity tests, after it has emerged that HMRC is in disagreement with many members of the IR35 Forum – the body set up to help overhaul the current IR35 regime.
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From 1st April 2012, with very few exceptions, all businesses must submit their VAT returns electronically, and pay any VAT liabilities due online.
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The minutes of the most recent IR35 Forum meetings reveal that the body expects to publish an IR35 business test and typical scenarios to help establish the risk any given professional services company has to being caught by the IR35 rules.
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Over the past few months, following revelations that many high-ranking public sector officials have been remunerated via their own limited companies rather than the payroll, many articles in the mainstream press have unfairly portrayed small limited company owners as ‘tax dodgers’.
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The IR35 rules remain in place after Budget 2012, although an ambiguous statement in the Budget documentation may cause further uncertainty to contractors
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Today’s Budget contained few surprises for limited companies, and was broadly pro-business, but will probably be remembered for the additional income tax rate cut than anything else.
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